Jonathan101 wrote: ↑Sun Jan 13, 2019 12:25 am
I'd say better examples of Marty Stus would be Eragon or Richard Rahl. Neo is overpowered but he is still somewhat flawed, especially in the first movie but even int he sequels he makes mistakes or is outmatched or outthought at times.
Though I'd say that defining a Mary / Marty Sue as "too perfect" is an overgeneralisation; at least, there are broader definitions of the term than that. TV Tropes alone has about a dozen variations of the concept.
This. Mary Sues/Gary Stus are basically wish fulfillment characters written badly.
There are, broadly speaking, four elements that together generally make a Sue:
--Character shilling: The Sue is always shilled to us as an inestimably important and (usually) virtuous character, by pretty much everybody else. Anybody who doesn't like the Sue is usually evil.
--Character focus: The Sue is the main character to the point of sucking time away from everybody else.
--Protagonist-centered morality: The Sue is always or almost always morally right, even if what they do is fucking evil. If a Sue does do something that they think is immoral in the story, it will typically be a relatively neutral thing that everybody will immediately jump on to tell the Sue that he/she is great. The Sue's evil actions (for example, Eragon's creepy fixation on his love interest, Richard Rahl's Objectivist black-and-white moralizing and kicking children) will be treated as neutral or morally right. Punishment of the Sue will typically be portrayed as unjust.
--Extreme power: A Sue will usually succeed at whatever they do, be a better fighter than everybody else, kill more bad guys, kick more ass, etc., typically without help and often helping others succeed in their own field.
Eragon and Richard Rahl are both Sues. Michael Burnham--shilled, focused, hypercompetent, and with some protagonist-centered morality--fills most of the criteria.
I would say that calling her a Mary Sue is HARSH but not necessarily entirely inaccurate. She is fairly low on the protagonist-centered morality bit, though.